Various polymers have been widely employed in order to impart a good feel to hair cosmetics, These polymers are used as an agent for improving the feel at the application of a hair cosmetic onto the hair or as a thickener for imparting a suitable viscosity to a hair cosmetic. Conventional thickeners include polyvinyl alcohol, cellulose derivatives, acrylic acid derivatives and the like, However, each of these thickeners cannot give a satisfactory feel when they are used alone, rather they impart a rough texture to the hair during the application or after overcome these disadvantages, a silicone excellent in water repellency, lubricating properties and glossiness, has been widely used. However, silicone oil is hardly soluble in nature and insoluble in highly polar solvents such as water, Thus, the application thereof is restricted, In order to solve these problems and to impart novel properties to a silicone oil, attempts have been made to modify a silicone oil by introducing long-chain alkyl groups, polyoxyalkylene groups, amino groups, carboxyl groups and epoxy groups thereto. Such an oily material as obtained above contains a polyoxyalkylene moiety at a high content so as to establish well balanced hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties. As a result, it is sometimes observed that the function as a silicone cannot fully be exerted. Further, there occurs another problem that the addition of such a silicone oil would deteriorate the setting-retention function of a hair cosmetic.
As described above, conventional modified silicones cannot fully satisfy the requirements as a cosmetic component, namely, the characteristics of a silicone oil (e.g., lubricating properties, water repellency, glossiness, the oil-free feel), adsorptivity on the hair or skin and solubility in highly polar solvents such as water.